


A spectre, seking knowledge - The tale of Eidolon-5

by creativeProcrastinator



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:16:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29512377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creativeProcrastinator/pseuds/creativeProcrastinator
Summary: Eidolon-5 wakes up at the dawn of the dark age, not really sure of what to do, or where to go. But as he figures it out, he will discover some fundamental truths, and attempt to get people to listen, all the while solving what problems he can... and occasionally shooting said problems in the face. Or kneecap. Or somewhere equally fatal/debilitating....Anyway, this is his story, moving through the ages, learning, teaching, discovering, and kicking ass





	A spectre, seking knowledge - The tale of Eidolon-5

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posting this from SpaceBattles Creative Writing forums, will mainly be active there.
> 
> I do hope you enjoy reading it here too though.
> 
> Obligatory disclaimer: The only parts of this story I own are the characters I have created and the story itself. I do not own Destiny, Destiny 2, or any associated property. They are the property of Bungie. I am merely having a bit of fun using the universe they have created.

#  Chapter 1: Awakening

“Uuugh…” A deep echoey voice sounded in the quiet, forested landscape.

“Where the fuck am I?” He grumbled dazedly.

“Lightbearer!” 

“Aaah!” He screamed in surprise, punching out at whatever it was just calling out to him.

“Yeouch!”

He blinked rapidly, optics focusing on a floating orb encapsulated in a shell of eight pyramid-like outer pieces, the four in the back spinning agitatedly.

“The fuck’re you?” 

Somehow looking vaguely affronted, despite being what amounts to a floating eyeball - expressive little bugger - a feminine voice answered him “I, am a Ghost, and now, I am your Ghost.” She said with a huff of pride. Then she remembered what happened immediately before then “And you’re very rude! Punching me out of nowhere like that, what’s wrong with you!?”

“Well  _ excuuse me _ for waking up in the middle of nowhere, no clue what’s going on, and then a loud voice shouts at me not even a second later!”

“And your response is to punch me!?”

“What else was I supposed to do? React rationally!?”

They fell silent, glaring at each other, the Exo annoyed, the Ghost moreso. This continues for about a minute, neither saying anything, before the Exo held up his hands in surrender.

“Alright, alright, fine, I apologise. Can we start over? Where are we, and who are you?”

The Ghost gave the impression of narrowing her eye at him. “Humph” she turned around. “apology accepted. As for where we are…” freezing in the air, seemingly thinking about it, she soon answered “We are currently in Vals, Switzerland. And lastly, as I said earlier, I am a Ghost…” she froze again, this time with the pyramids a-spinning in an alarmed fashion “Oh no! Did I restore your mental processor incorrectly!? Did I cause my Chosen to have permanent short term memory loss, unable to form new memories!?”

The as-of-yet unnamed Exo stared blankly at the floating eyeball, an eyeridge slowly raising as he let the Ghost spiral into an increasingly self-deprecating rant, whizzing about as it did so. After about a minute of listening to several variations of the phrase “I was a mistake, I shouldn't have been made…” on repeat, not sure what to do, he decided to correct the Ghost’s leap in logic.

“Nah, I got the part where you said you were a Ghost. I meant more along the lines of a name, do you have one?” The Ghost seemed lost in her own world of self deprecation, so he gave her a soft flick with his fingers. “Yo.”

The Ghost shook. “Whuh…!?” He repeated the question. “Oh, well, no. Me and the others weren’t really created with names in mind… as far as I’m aware anyway.” She had calmed down, or become sufficiently distracted from her earlier train of thought, the Exo couldn’t tell which. 

After a moment of silence, the Ghost asked “Out of curiosity, what does your name mean?... Wait, no, you’ve just woken up it’s not fair to ask for…” She then swerved down the path of another self deprecating rant.

But this time the Exo wasn’t listening. What was his name? It really bothered him for some reason. It felt really important. But why?

He took an unsteady step backwards, and sagged down on some piece of rubble, taking a seat. 

He looked at his hands, as if they held the answer. Which is silly, they are hands. He nonetheless leaned forward to cradle his head in them and - 

_ Sitting, head cradled. Stands. _

_ Converse, flick, rambling. _

_ Confusion, BRIGHT, still, still for a long time. _

**_Ŗ̸̰̩͍͛̎͊̈́ͅͅi̶̭̩̭̤̟̋̉̆̈͐͝s̶̛̯͔͎̟̙͗̀̽e̶͎̖̼̩̍͝š̶̮̊̏͂̅,̷̤̓̑ ̶̫̈̋̔̕t̸̰̠̏͌̔̃̀ȩ̸̘͈̙̍n̷̡̛̘̩͚̘̹̿̓̒͗̑d̸̛͉̫͚̝̓̀̚r̸̈́͘͜͝i̶̗̘̥̖̹͙͒̊͗͑͌͌͗l̸̩̺̗̠̉́̃͠͝ͅͅͅ-̵̖̐̒m̸̛̜̤̙̼͚̈́̉͒i̶̺̅̈̅̕s̵̮̏̅͂̒̚͝t̸̜̓̋̊͒ ̵̡͔͔̣̖̺̦̕ò̸̫͔̯̎́f̴̰̖͚̥̈́̚͜ ̵̩͂͒̓̒ḑ̷͕͍̑̂̅̌͒a̵̡̧̛̞̱̲̲̱͆͑̿́r̴͖͇̬̱̣̳̊͑̃̂̎̾ḵ̸̙͕̈̋D̷̮͚̱̥͗Ȧ̸̢̲͉̘̟̺͈̿͑͂̔Ṙ̷̨̢͂̈̎̚͝ͅK̶̡͙̦̦͉̗͗̇̎̌͑̂ ̴͓̰͒́̀͗͊͊͝r̷̢̢͙̥̱̯̭̉̉̂̿̄͝ë̸̳̫̠̭̼́̽͑͝͝t̷̙̖̤̰̯̐̾̿͜r̴̹̱̹͐̉̍͑̉͝ã̷̢̱̦͖̼̥̻̌̓c̶̻̺̱͇̜͗͐̎̂̋͊̕t̵̢̞̺̎s̷̗̠̲̳̝̄̈́,̸̧̯̼̘̲̗̦͗̈ ̶̼̙̲̬̉̎͘e̶̞̺̭̝̿͋̌͆͠ͅv̶͉͓̎̚͝ę̶͈͍̭͎͕̯͛͊̾̐̈́r̷̯̱͙̅̋͐̿̑y̷̡̖̗̿͊̆̿͛͜͠ẇ̵͕̥̽̐ḫ̵̢̖̝̇̾ȩ̸̭̩̊̽̊͝ŕ̶̩͍̣͙͙͐̑̅͋̈́e̵̳̦̭̐̑̇͗͐̕͜ ̸̧̘̙̇̈́s̸̟̎̐͌͜ḩ̴̾̅̌̂ä̵̢̮͚̮́̒͗̽͠ḍ̶̢͇̾̆̆͗̚o̶̻̜͈̳̪͗̃͐͑̈́̌w̸̤͊,̶͖̆ ̷̧̧̩̩̑d̷̠͇̼̿̉̆̔̏̚͝e̴̗͑̌͌v̸̨̱̞̝̖̭̑͗å̴͉̰̯̓̓̒̊͗̓s̸̙̰͍̜̫͛̃̋̂͌ţ̴̛̠̰̜͋͝ǎ̸͎̼̣̰͈͚t̶͚͛̽i̸̙̮͕̲̥̻͒̓ơ̴̱̫͈͖̱̽͗̀̎͝n̷̗̝͙̬̗͐̍̀͌̚͜ ̷̧̯̲̼̲͇͋͠ḭ̴̫̥̱̽͒n̷͓̹̩͉͋́̒̄ ̸̢̬̜̘̰̪͋̅r̴̲̤̩̻̺̼̭͗͂̑̉e̵̜̯̮̰̱̘͛̿̑̎͝v̶̫͖͙͙̫̮͂͛̂̊̒̚͝ē̵̡̢̮͕͎̝r̴̖̯̝͇̦̘͘ş̶̞̰̳̘̉͋͝ȩ̸̛͍̜̘̮̱͆̅̈̆.̷̛̫̗̘͔̻͓͉̑̊̀̋_ **

_ Walks, more people, recognition from many, unwanted. _

_ Many years, accomplishments, helping fellow Exo backwards. _

_ Regression, fightingfightingfiGHTING, always more, stops. _

_ Lies down, a Name greeted, fading sleep - _

“...Eidolon” the Exo said softly, uncertainly, as if tasting the word. It felt right.

Sensing the sudden shift in the mood of her chosen, her second rant of the day stopped abruptly. “What is it?” She asked, hovering anxiously.

“My name” he said, with a growing certainty. “My name’s Eidolon-5”. It felt weird to not remember it, some core part of him rebelled against the very idea. Knowing it did calm him down, though.

“Oh…” the Ghost said, pyramid shapes spinning softly. “Oh, so you remembered! I didn’t resurrect you incorrectly after all!” The little floating eyeball danced a little jig in the air. “I was terrified I’d done something wrong when you said you didn’t remember even after I told you...!”

The newly named Exo slowly turned his head fully towards her, optics narrowed in confusion. “...Told me what?”

“Your name!”

Eidolons optics narrowed further, this time in annoyance. “No you didn’t.”

“Of course I did!” She whirled around, pyramid shapes spinning like a small tornado, also annoyed. “I told you after I…” -The shapes slowed- “resurrected… you.”

An awkward silence settled between them.

The moment stretched for an eternity, though in reality it was closer to a minute. Finally, the Ghost spoke. “Uhm… oops?”

More silence. “Your name shall be Spook.” He declared.

“Whu- why?” The Ghost exclaimed, taken aback.

“You get spooked super easily, and you sure as fuck spooked me. Your name is Spook.”

“It’s just another word for ‘ghost’, you-!” She stilled, and turned quickly in a seemingly random direction. “Incoming Eliksni Ketch- we need to hide,  _ now _ .” She warned urgently.

Deciding that whatever got the until-now panicky Ghost to get serious was worth listening to, Eidolon complied. Taking a closer look at his surroundings, he searched for a hiding spot.

The Ghost and Lightbearer were situated by a road in a forest. The edge of a forest judging by the sparse forestation and the nearby series of dilapidated buildings. After silently resolving to ask more about these “Eliksni” at a later time, he began thinking on what to do. 

He could go against Spooks’ advice and try to fight them. He dismissed the thought as soon as it popped up. By the sounds of it, Eliksni are generally hostile, and he was unarmed, and save for a heavily modified and torn lab coat - many pockets with stuff in them, but nothing gun shaped - he was also unarmored. Leaving him with very little to fight  _ with _ . 

He could also follow Spooks’ urging to hide, but with the caveat that he would spy on them while hiding. Knowledge is power and all that. This posed similar problems as the first idea ahd. Then, if discovered, he’d have to flee in an unfamiliar environment, unarmed, and unarmored. No thanks.

Lastly, another strategy would be avoiding them entirely. To do that, he needed to know why they were here… So that he could run in the opposite direction of wherever they were going “Yo Spook, what are these Eliksni going for?”, he asked

Giving nothing more than a huff at her new name, she told him “Ever since they came into the system after civilization collapsed-” Eidolon mentally noted to ask more about  _ that _ later “-they’ve been scavenging for parts, technology, anything they can get their claws on.”

“So it’s safe to assume that they’re heading for the city ruins?”

“Yes..? Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Eidolon started, standing up and turning on the spot, in one smooth motion moving towards the forest “Then the best way to avoid them is going in the opposite direction. Come along!” With that said, he started sprinting into the forest.

The Ghost’s eye-light blinked “... Did I resurrect a pacifist? That  _ is _ a first.” Then again, a lot of things are new for Ghosts, them being pretty new themselves. Spook quickly hurried after her Chosen when she noticed how far ahead he’d gotten. 

“Why aren’t you fighting them?”, she asked once she had caught up to him.

While still running, weaving between the trees with an awkward grace, he answered her as if she had a screw loose. “Why the hell would I do that? I’m underequipped, and I have no armor or weapons. From what you said, I assume there are multiple hostiles, and I’m only one guy. Do you see my issue with those kinds of odds?” He slowed down just a bit and turned his head more fully towards her, voice cautious. “Why do you ask? Do you expect me to fight anything that moves?”

Keeping pace, she answered. “No! No, nothing like that!” She paused in her speech, collecting her thoughts. “It’s just, I hear other ghosts tell stories of their own Chosen, and they always talk about the various heroic fights they get into, defending the helpless and I… kinda expected you to be the same.”

Eidolon slowed down to a stop “Are there any innocents in the ruins?” At her slow shake he started to walk in the direction he had been going previously. “Well then, if there’s no one to defend, then why bother with a fight?”

He was about to speed up further when he noticed his surroundings. They felt familiar. In the same way he felt like he should remember his name, but couldn’t. Another lost memory? Something else?

“Eidolon? What’s wrong? Why did you stop?” Spook asked worriedly.

“I… feel like I remember this place.” He started walking towards the direction where the sense of familiarity was the strongest. “Dunno why, but I’m getting the feeling I have a place I really need to get to.” He also felt a cautious excitement and he wasn’t entirely sure of its origin. Ignoring the feeling somewhat successfully for now, and successfully fighting the urge to give a slightly evil sounding giggle, he strode onwards.

The walk towards the mysterious destination went on in near silence, with the occasional mutterings about “stupid fuckin’ roots” from Eidolon whenever he tripped.

Eventually, they reached the edge of a large clearing before a cliff face. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about the clearing itself - some shrubs there, a boulder or two there - but something of interest was present in the cliff.

There was an extremely sturdy looking circular vault door deep into the cliff face, which was deep enough to be considered a miniature cave. The door itself was somewhat large, about as tall and wide for four people to go through comfortably, maybe eight if you squeezed. But what caught his interest the most was the sigil near the top of the door.

It was an elongated hexagon, with two stylized letters, an E above a five, both being a dark purple. He felt a deep familiarity with it, and as was probably the case for most other feelings of uncertain origins, it had to do with his missing memories.

A second thing of interest of course was the four armed insect person trying to break into it.

…

Hold the fuck up. 

He’d evidently been so caught up observing the door that he had completely missed the incessant hissing from Spook telling him to hide and the small encampment of even more four armed insect people surrounding the door.

_“Some filthy, four armed, insectoid xenos are trying to break into_ ** _my VAULT”_** Eidolon thought with an intense wave of rage and panic. He had no idea why, but he knew, deep in his soul, that they could not be allowed to gain access to its content. And that they would pay dearly for making the attempt.

“...now will you  _ get  _ **_down!_ ** ” Spooks hissing finally faded in, just in time for him to both react to her warning and get out of sight from a patrolling four armed insectoid in front of him.

“Oh, NOW you listen!?” The hiss was now bordering on a shriek, but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.

“Sorry, tunnelvision.” He apologised unapologetically. He looked around, trying to find his floating companion. “Where are you? And who’re these assholes?”

“I’m phased out of real space at the moment,  _ as I just finished explaining. _ ”, she said bitingly. “And, as you would know if you had  _ listened _ , they’re Eliksni, House Devils going by their colors.”

He kept silent as another patrol guard walked by, digesting the new information. Deciding not to question the first answer, he confronted the second. “Eliksni? Weren’t they going towards the town?” He asked quietly, with a strained neutrality.

“Well evidently not!” Spook said in his head with a huff, sounding a bit calmer now that he was actually listening. “This must have been their goal all along.”

“If you knew they were coming, how come you didn’t know they were coming here?” He asked, intently observing the encampment. Patrol routes, the various tent-like drapes hung by the cliff, threat assessment and making a headcount. 

A fairly standard back and forth patrol around the camp. 

Four tents, with a bigger one seeming to host some kind of generator for the drill-thing they were using to try to break through the vault door. “ _ Good luck with that _ ” part of him thought darkly, feeling oddly confident in their inability to do so. 

There was a large quantity of smaller Eliksni with only two arms milling about doing various tasks, all armed, fifteen total, although he couldn’t tell that with certainty with obstacles in the way. A number of larger Eliksni with more heavy duty weapons seemed to be keeping watch, six total, although the ones he could see didn’t seem to take any good vantage points, some armed with arm daggers, some with rifles. A couple of them were patrolling the perimeter. One of them was attempting to break into the vault.

And lastly, there were a pair of the largest Eliksni in the camp with more elaborate helmets, observing the camp, one with a pair sheathed swords and another with some kind of shoulder mounted launcher. There also was a giant floating orb-thing with a purple eyeball.

So in total, there were probably twenty four hostiles, fifteen squishies plus a possible additional six squishies, and three heavies.

Unknowing of his thought process, Spook gave an annoyed huff and answered “We - us Ghosts - haven’t quite figured out how to track their ships while in stealth mode” - Eidolon made a mental note to ask more about that one later - “and so far we can only track them when they jump large distances.” 

“How many of them are there?” He asked, wanting confirmation on his number assessment. “If you’ve got some kind advanced sensors, you should probably be able to read life-signs, or active targets, right?”

A bit startled at the sudden change in topic, she nonetheless replied “W-well, yes, but I’ll have to rematerialise to use them.”

“As long as we stay hidden, we should be fine. Go.” He insisted, moving back to a more secure location.

With something like hesitancy Spook rematerialised over Eidolon's shoulder, an irregular cone of light projecting out of her eyeball sweeping over the encampment.

A moment or two later she dematerialized again. “There are thirty active hostiles within the clearing.” She said cautiously. “Why did you want to know?”

He’d missed six, not ideal, but manageable. “Knowing your enemies.” He stated. “On the subject of knowing things, what are their capabilities ?”

Still confused but with an inkling to what was going on, she explained. ”The Dregs” - Eidolon gave an inquiring hum - ”uh, the smaller ones with two arms, are generally armed with small inaccurate burst-fire shock pistols and shock daggers. 

“Vandals, the bigger four armed ones, are armed with either a rifle similar to the Dreg’s or a sniper rifle. Avoid those if possible. The hooded ones are Marauders, these ones seem to be mele based and can go invisible. The invisibility makes the air shimmer as they move, but they can still catch you off guard. 

“The big ones are Captains, the ones visible are armed with shock swords and a shrapnel launcher respectively, they have an arc shield and a short ranged teleport. The big orb thing is a Servitor, it can shield nearby allies and shoot void bolts out of its eye.” Spook finished. Eidolon assessed the new information and started moving towards a weak point in the patrol route near the edge of the camp, perfect for a silent takedown without the guards absence being noted for a while.

As he began to move, Spook spoke up. “Weren’t you going to avoid them?”

“I would, if they weren’t trying to break into that vault.” Eidolon said lowly, observing the guards movement.

A pause. “Is… it important? The vault, that is.”

“Honestly? No clue. Call it a gut feeling.” He admitted, voice trembling only slightly in anger and frustration, the latter due to not knowing the source of the anger. Ignoring it, and hoping to get an explanation when he got inside the vault, while also ignoring the “how” of the “getting in” part. He continued. “But I do know, that they cannot be allowed to get inside it.”

He’d reached the weak point, taking position behind some shrubbery, ready to spring into action.

“What’re you doing?” Spook’s whispering was entirely unnecessary, being immaterial at the moment.

Snorting, Eidolon whispered back. “Going to try and ambush one of the guards. If I’m going to have a go at this, I’ll need to be a bit better equipped. And since I don’t seem to have anything big or gun-shaped on my person, I’m going to take what I can from one of them and proceed from there.”

“Are you sure you don’t have anything?” Spook pointedly asked “I mean, you haven’t really checked.”

He was about to dismiss that notion, but paused and considered how far away he’d estimated the guard was, making it around a minute and a half. “I won’t be able to check everything and put it back by the time the guard gets here and still be prepared to ambush them.”

Accepting the answer, she went quiet and they waited in silence.

At the sound of footsteps the hidden Exo tensed and looked up, zeroing in on the source of the sound. The guard, a Vandal, had come around the corner of the nearby tent, weapon in hand- er, claw-hand thing. 

When the Vandal had reached the end of the route and turned around, Eidolon jumped up and grabbed him in a chokehold -

_ Shock, doing patrol duty as per usual, going back and forth for hours on end, _

_ getting ready for the day and getting equipment, wakesleep, setting up, disembarking, _

_ embarking, preparing deployment, Captain Rha’kish barking out orders about their deployment,  _

_ reports of a heavily fortified bunker probably filled with technology,  _

_ resting, leg injury, training, boredom, extraction, ransack settlement - _

\- back to the present a second later with a pair of elbows jabbing into his side - mildly distracting and a numb sense of impact - slightly dazed from whatever the fuck  _ that _ was.

But he did keep his wits about him as the guard started to try and struggle loose, keeping a tight hold around its neck. Suddenly, the guards arms twisted backwards in a way he thought they couldn't and started clawing at his face. Not wanting to get his optics damaged, he tilted his head backwards, consequently restricting the guards windpipe - or close equivalent - further.

A choking noise indicated that it was doing  _ something _ right either way.

The guard started trying to buck him off. The guard gave one buck that was particularly powerful, loosening the Exo’s grip and nearly throwing him off. Acting on a mix of instinct, a vague memory and slight panic, Eidolon hooked one of his legs around one of the guard’s, tripping them to the ground.

Sitting on the guards back, maintaining the chokehold, Eidolon managed to plant a knee in the centre of the guards back, bending it further backwards. A second or two later, the struggling slowed, and a little later, stopped.

Holding on for a few more seconds after that, to confirm the guard was actually dead, and then removing the breather-apparatus just to be sure, he lets go. 

Sitting on the ground taking slow breaths - some small part telling him he really doesn’t need to breathe - he speaks, mildly delirious. “What the fuck was that?”

“What was what?” Spook asked, sounding either unconcerned or mutely shocked, it was hard to tell.

“As soon as I touched him, I got a snapshot of the past half year of this guy's life!” Eidolon exclaimed hissingly, he then blinked “actually no, more than that. Where he’s been in detail, recent injuries, higher ups… How the fuck do I know that?” His eyes narrowed “Is this a side-effect of you resurrecting me?”

“N-no? At least, not as far as I’m aware?” She said, sounding just as confused as he was. “The abilities they gain are almost always related to the Lights three elements, Arc, Solar or Void. I haven’t ever heard of touch-based information gathering before.”

“More likely 4th dimensional perception, based on the events being shown in reverse order” He corrected mutteringly, calmer now that he’s able to make sense of it, if only barely. Then the sentence before the last registered “You mean the other zombies have-?” He stops. “No, you know what? Not important, not now. I can figure out how to use any potential superpowers later. What I do need to know is how to touch anything without having a vision of everything it's been through since its creation.”

“You did on the way here though?” Spook pointed out “You touched plenty of trees on the way here without freezing up.”

Eidolon thought about it. He was in a bit of a daze at that time, but he did remember abcently touching some trees here and there for support. “Point.” He says. But what makes the trees different? 

Being painfully aware that he’s wasting valuable time, he pointedly touched a nearby tree to test it. He almost immediately pulled back when he got an in-detail peek into how many times the tree got shit on by various creatures in the past eight days. 448 times total, for the record. 

Ok, so it isn’t the trees themselves that are different. Good to know. What then? The touch itself? The way he touched it? 

Going back to the scuffle a minute previously, what caused him to remain in the present after getting elbowed by the guard? After a brief moment of thinking, he came to a conclusion. His focus wasn’t on the guard himself, but rather the act of killing him. Was focus on the actions goal rather than the action itself the key? 

No, more like, focus on the result of the action rather than the object of the action.

To test this, Eidolon reached out towards the discarded shock rifle nearby, not to acquire it, but to be armed. He grasped the handle and brought the rifle up to his chest, no vision interrupting. “Ok, so far so good.” 

He then realised that he had no idea how to use the newly acquired rifle. “How do I-” He stopped, blinked, and looked down on the rifle. “Hmmm” Focusing on it, he got a reverse snapshot of everything the rifle had done - or, well, had been used for - though nothing outside the perspective of an inanimate object. Nothing beyond physical input. Was it due to a lack of other sensors? Fascinating. But now he did know how to use it. “That is very nifty”.

Sounding curious, Spook piped up. “Did you use your… time viewing ability?”

“Yup.” Eidolon said, pleased at having figured out how it worked before it became a problem. Glancing from the rifle to the rapidly cooling corpse of the guard, he suddenly became a lot more aware of his surroundings, and his plan of action. “Speaking of time, how long has it been since I strangled this guy?”

A second later “A little less than three minutes”

“ _ Ah shit, I dawdled too much time _ .” , he thought “Then it’s best we get a move on.”

Looting what he could from the guard - some ammo packs, an ID of some sort and a pair of wrist-mounted shock daggers - he then dragged the corpse in among the trees and bushes where it wouldn’t be easily seen, and then moved into the encampment.

Sneaking in was pretty easy, all things considered. Eidolon hid under one of the tent flaps, one that conveniently held the Eliksni weapon supply. He armed himself with some more ammo packs and some shock grenades. He was then informed by Spook that she could store items in a small dimensional pocket, after which he grabbed all they had, but not before a small amount of grumbling about “not being informed earlier”.

He managed to ambush four of the dregs and one of the vandals on their way into the tent in the time it took him to loot the weapon supply cache, finding yet more weapons hidden among the supplies, one being identified as a wire rifle -and then a sniper rifle after a stray comment from Eidolon about “wire rifle” being a stupid name- and the rest of the stache was put in storage. 

Eidolon was acutely aware that killing multiple eliksni within a short amount of time would not go unnoticed for long.

Sure enough, he soon heard the harsh chittering of the captains near the centre of the encampment. Going by the lack of shuffling feet, they hadn’t quite started to mobilise. He knew that wouldn’t last. He needed to get moving.

Hearing footsteps and a soft chittering behind his hiding spot, he decided after half a moment of thought to move forward and peeked around the tent opening. Immediately in front of him there was a single Dreg, with its back turned. Moving in quickly, he shanked the Dreg with his recently acquired shock daggers, once in the throat and two where he assumed its lungs are. They made a quiet gurgling noise as they died.

Eidolon hears a noise of distress not far away to his left. Turning his head, he spots another Dreg that had seen the killing of his comrade. Acting on impulse, he swung around the Shock Rifle off his back and shot the Dreg in one smooth motion. The normally inaccurate rifle had little room for deviation as each of the arc bolts hit the Dreg squarely in the chest.

There was a brief silence from the camp, before he heard the roared commands of what he identified as one of the Captains. If the disappearing crew made them suspicious, the sound of weapon fire put them on high alert. “Ahhh shit.” He said, realising he just made his self appointed job a lot harder than it needed to be.

He was about to move more securely behind cover when he noticed the air shimmering in the opening between the back of the weapon depo tent and the surrounding forest. Remembering the mention of some of the opponents being able to go invisible, he aimed his still raised rifle and fired off an experimental salvo.

The shimmer moved quickly to one side, but didn't quite manage to dodge the entire salvo as one of the arc bolts hit. The cloaking flickered, revealing the hooded visage of a Marauder, whom hissed threateningly. It was holding its side with one of its lower arms.

He prepared to back away when he hears the shuffling of feet from behind, along with some harsh chittering that he  _ thought  _ is an insult of some kind. “ _ Note to self; learn their language so I know when I’m being insulted.”, _ he thought, diving into a roll to the side on instinct, away from the Marauder. That turned out to be the right call. Not a second later he heard weapons fire and was grazed by one of the arc bolts.

Turning his head, he saw another Dreg, shock pistol still raised. Paying more attention, he also heard additional footsteps coming from behind the weapon depo tent, in a path leading up to the previously observed Dreg. Not wanting to deal with multiple enemies simultaneously, he solves the problem in the most efficient way possible; explosives.

Eidolon deftly threw one of the stolen cylindrical grenades from their improvised holster at the cliff face behind the Dreg, moving behind the cover of the weapon depo tent as he did so. 

The shock grenades have two ends, one that sticks to surfaces - or people - and another where the actual explosion comes out in a thirty five degree cone. Normally, it would release its charge in bursts - being battery powered rather than good ol’ dynamite - damaging anything within its explosive cone.

The Dreg saw the trajectory of the explosive ordnance, four dimly glowing eyes widening as it moved to dodge. 

However, as Eidolon and Spook were raiding the weapons cache, Spook had tweaked them a bit. Putting all the power into one burst…

The grenade detonated with a high-pitched electrical whine, catching the Dreg in the back. They let out a strangled gasp, flopping forward onto their stomach, revealing a back covered in severe electrical burns. After a small bounce and a thud, they lay still. 

… and drastically reducing the arming time.

A significant hole was left in the rock where the grenade had detonated, some rocks flying into the air. There was a series of matching thuds from where he’d heard footsteps, signifying that the problem was solved. 

It had all happened during less than five seconds.

Eidolon nodded in satisfaction and was about to turn his attention back towards the Marauder when Spook suddenly shouted in alarm in his mind. “They’re sending out a call for backup!” 

Opponent temporarily forgotten, he focused on this new information. “Can you jam it?” he asked urgently.

“Was doing that as soon as I detected it!” she responded, “But I can’t hold it for too long, us Ghosts don’t quite have a complete understanding of how their systems work yet. The signal is going to break through eventually!”

“How long until it breaches?”

A pause. “Less than two minutes.”

“Shit. Where’s their communications hub?”

“On the other side of the camp.”

He stared in mild disbelief in the indicated direction. Although his sight was blocked by the weapon depo tent, he knew the other side of it was teeming with hostiles. That he would need to fight through. “Oh for fuck’s sa-”

The Marauder took this distraction as an opportunity to attack.

Quicker than he was able to react, the Marauder dove in and yanked the stolen shock daggers off with its lower pair of arms, causing Eidolon to lose his grip on the loosely held shock rifle in the process. It then went in for an overhead slash with one of its shock swords.

This time he had time to foresee the attack and grabbed the wrist of the Marauders sword arm, doing the same with the other arm when it swung down from the other side. They stood there in a stalemate, neither giving an inch. It didn’t last long, as Eidolon soon noticed the Marauders lower set of arms were moving in for an attack at his relatively unprotected stomach.

To prevent this, he attempted to pull the Marauder to the side. The Marauder went a step further, using the tight grip connecting their wrists to pull him into an involuntary tumble. They rolled a couple of meters before settling, the Marauder on top, sword arms still held in an iron grip. Growing frustrated, it twisted its left arm out of his grip, batted his arm away with one of its lower arms and went in for the kill.

Panicking, time seemed to slow down as he desperately tried to think of a way to get out of this situation. As the blade descended, he shoved his free arm forward on instinct. Not to stop the blade -too late for that- but towards the Marauders throat.

Mid motion, time still moving at a crawl, his forearm and hand split open, revealing a long stiletto dagger extending forward. 

The world suddenly sped up to regular speed, the dagger thrusting into and through the Marauders jugular. 

It made choked noise of surprise, dropping the swords it was holding in favour of trying to stem the.. bleeding? Whatever was coming out of the wound looked like a liquid at first, before quickly evaporating into a reddish blue wispy smoke. It was leaking heavily, and no matter what the Marauder tried to do the flow didn’t seem to stop. Shortly thereafter it stopped moving.

Eidolon was only partly paying attention to that, however, staring at his arm. “I am fairly certain it’s not supposed to do that.” He retracts and extends the dagger a couple of times, replicating the sensation on his other arm and doing the same there. How did- Wha-? “Nope, not thinking about that now. Fight first, answers later.”

He stood up quickly, taking one of the Marauder’s shock swords - having greater reach than the daggers - as he did. He briefly considered taking the invisibility device, but decided against it, figuring something like that would need a bit of time calibrating. Time he didn’t have, going by the sounds of multiple footsteps approaching from the camp.

He went to pick up the shock rifle from where he left it, immediately aiming and snapping off a burst in the direction he had glimpsed movement. An electric crackle was indication enough that he had hit something at least, before immediately dashing off to gain some distance.

Turning around, he saw one of the Captains - the one with a pair of long shock blades - approaching cautiously. Its shield was down, but Eidolon knew of its ability to teleport, making sustained fire useless. Instead he opted for a method that would get him closer to the comms tent; to find an alternate way there.

This was made difficult as the only other way out from behind the weapon depo was through a corridor between it and the - what he assumes to be - drill engine tent. After carefully stepping over the corpses of the two Dregs killed from the grenade he’d thrown earlier and briefly turning his attention away from the Captain, he peeked down the corridor. 

What seemed to be the rest of the camp greeted him, all surrounded by protective barrier emanating from the Servitor

“Oh fuck me, that’s all the bad guys.” He quickly ducked back behind cover. Thinking quickly, he briefly popped out of cover and threw a grenade in there, aiming at the Servitor. Even if it didn’t hit exactly, he figured he’d hit  _ something _ .

Having been left with few other options, he turned the other way. He spotted the Captain circling around cautiously. “Spook, sniper.” Spook dutifully switches the shock rifle for a wire rifle. He aimed and was prepared to fire when in a stroke of bad luck, he partially slipped on one of the corpses at his feet, throwing off his aim.

The Captain luckily doesn’t come away unscathed, the shot hitting it in the leg. It gave a roar of pain, but didn’t teleport away, instead it kept on circling. Odd.

He heard an explosion, and a sound that he presumed to be the Servitors shield fizzing out.

Having recovered after his momentary stumble, Eidolon jumped out from the non-corridor side of the tent and booked it towards the depo tent’s edge. The Blade Captain dashed up behind him meaning to cut him in half, he dove into a roll, one blade nicking him in the side. He came to a knee at the edge of the tent-

-staring up the barrel of a shrapnel launcher.

“ _ Oh shi- _ ”

The Captain holding the launcher fired off two bursts of burning hot shrapnel directly into his chest before he was able to react, rolling out of the way once more.

As he came out of his roll, he was surrounded on all sides. “Shock” he rasped, voice coming out in an electronic crackle. Spook switched his weapon, and once again time seemed to slow down. What the-? No, focus.

He heard movement from behind and dove forward on instinct, narrowly avoiding an until then unseen Dreg trying to shank him in the back.

Still recovering from dodging, he didn’t manage to react fast enough to the  _ vworp _ sound of a  _ second  _ Servitor shooting at him. He started to sprint forward, but the Servitor's void blast caught him in the right leg, causing his sprint to turn into a halting gallop.

Then a  _ third _ Captain came charging at him. Thoroughly sick and tired of getting caught off guard, he raised the Shock Rifle in a one handed grip and fired two bursts. The Captain's shield popped explosively, causing them to stumble. He would have shot again if the rifle hadn’t clicked empty.

He heard a particularly loud and angry screech. Glancing at the source of the sound, he saw a Dreg standing in the corridor he’d peeked through the other side of earlier. Behind it were the blown up corpses of their comrades. 

The Dreg threw an unmodded grenade. Going by the trajectory, it would miss him, but it would land perfectly under the already damaged but active Servitor currently by his right side.

Sensing the opportunity to take down two major threats simultaneously, he took another ‘nade -that Spook had helpfully replaced earlier- from its holster, and threw it at Servitor number two who still had him in its sightline. It stuck the Servitor in the middle of its purple eye socket.

That done, he looked for an exit, only to find the ones previously available being closed off. He looked in the direction with the lowest concentration of hostiles, towards the opening of the second largest tent in the camp near the vault cave. 

His bum leg was not doing him any favours however, slowing his speed. He could hear them start to move behind him. 

“ _ Dammit no! _ ” he thought, staring desperately at the edge of the tent, jaw clenched. “ _ I need to get away, come on! _ ”

He took another stumbling step. A spark of  _ something _ glimmered at the edge of his perception.

“ _ Come- _ ”

The spark ignited, an odd sensation of being immaterial, moving yet not moving- no, being transported-

“- _ on! _ ” He suddenly found himself where he wanted to be. Taking only the briefest of moments to be disoriented and glance behind him, he took a halting step forward and dove behind cover.

Coming out of his roll, sitting down and leaning against the barrels of… something, in the tent, he spotted what he assumed to be the comms operator in another tent opposite him. It was a Dreg, tapping away furiously at the console in front of it.

“Sniper” he rasped, although the electronic crackle was now significantly less prominent.

The comms Dreg flinched at the sound, but by the time it turned around Eidolon had his Wire Rifle aimed and ready, its head exploding in viscera not a second later.

Soon thereafter, he heard the near simultaneous explosions of the shock grenades going off. 

He held the Wire Rifle in a ready position for a moment longer before it fell from his boneless grip. He tilted his head backwards against the barrels and breathed out an entirely necessary sigh of relief. 

He then took stock of his injuries. The front of the lab coat thing he was wearing was absolutely shredded, though oddly enough the many pockets covering its front seemed stubbornly resistant to damage. Underneath it was a deep gouge in his chest, with some hot pieces of metal still present. 

The nick in his side wasn’t nearly as bad, having merely cut through his coat and a bit of his skin-casing.

The real kicker was his right leg. It seemed to barely hold itself together, having various servos and internal parts exposed, and with large chunks of it blown off. It was a miracle that he managed to hobble as far as he did.

“Doesn’t that hurt!?” Spook asked in distress.

Listening abcently to the disorientated Eliksni, he answered uncertainly “...No?” The word wasn’t connecting properly in his head. “The fuck’s “hurt”?”

A harsh demand was bellowed from one of the Captains.

“What is- Hurt! Pain! The feeling you get when one or multiple of your body parts are damaged!”

“Well that sounds useful.” He commented idly, while inspecting his leg.

Some mumbling could be heard from the centre of the camp.

Then, he felt the spark from earlier give a pulse. He watched with some astonishment as his leg started to repair itself out of nothing. “What the shitspinning fuck?”

Distress briefly forgotten, Spook explained “All Lightbearers can regenerate. Didn’t I…?” she drifted off. Sighing wearily, she continued “No, no I did not tell you that.”

An accusatory rasp shouted out among the voices.

“When we’re done here there’s going to be a loooong discussion on what this Lightbearer thing entails.” He said, watching his chest and lab coat start to close up too.

“That’s fair.”

In the ensuing silence of the accusation, another, similar voice said something that sounded like a confirmation.

Having recovered, he got into a better sitting position and looked towards the source of the voices. “Speaking of being done, how many of them are left?”

Judging it relatively safe to come out, Spook rematerialised and took a quick scan “Thirteen in total.”

Heavy footsteps walked rapidly towards something. One step was heavier than the other, leading Eidolon to believe that it was the Captain he shot in the leg. All the while said Captain was hissing threateningly. 

That reminded him. “Yo Spook, do you Ghosts have something like a “how to speak Eliksni for Dummies” book?”

Spook made a thoughtful sound, distracted, staring off into space. Refocusing, she replied. “Yyyeeess, some of us are working on translating their language, though none are entirely successful yet. Why do you ask?”

The footsteps came to a stop, the hissing having transformed into an enraged growl. A small quavering voice could be heard, just barely.

“So I can know when I’m being insulted. Pretty sure that one Dreg was talking shit, so I wanted to be able to return the favour.”

Taking a moment to let the words register, she let out a tired groan.

A thud and the scraping of feet brought the pairs focus fully to the sounds of the camp. Gasping. With a final  _ snap _ , the sounds of struggle ceased.

“... Did they just off their own comrade?” Eidolon asked disbelievingly.

A quick scan later and Spook answers with a mildly hysterical “Yup.”

The sound of a body hitting the ground was heard.

“We should move.”

Wordlessly Spook dematerialised, and they heard a rallying cry from the Captains.

He stood up and started to head towards the comms tent to gain a better vantage point on his pursuers. Before he got far he heard the telltale sound of a wire rifle charging from his right. He ducked back behind the cover of the tent, narrowly avoiding the shot aimed at his head.

“ _ That sightline’s covered. _ ” Eidolon noted. He briefly contemplated how to get across without being seen, when he remembered what he’d done previously. He took the spark and replicated the sensation, focusing on getting into the cover of the comms tent. A second later he was there.

The console was still on.

He stared at it, fighting down a mild panic. “Spook? How do I turn this thing off?”

After a short delay, she responded. “You either need an ID of some kind to turn it off. Or you can shoot it.”

He glanced down at the headless corpse of the Dreg by the console “Do you think this guy got an ID?”

“No, Dregs are considered the canon fodder of canon fodder among Eliksni. It’s more likely it was just operating it while the actual operator was doing something else. Why not just shoot it?”

“It makes me feel a bit iffy. Dunno why, but it feels like I could get something useful out of it while it’s whole.” But it also looked like the only- wait, no.

He rummaged around in one of the bigger pockets in his coat, pulling out the ID-thing he’d gotten off of that first Vandals corpse.

“Ok, so what do I do with this?”

She answered promptly, if in mild astonishment. “I’d forgotten you picked that up. Place it on that panel to the left and turn the knob below counterclockwise until it turns off.”

He did so, and sighed in relief when the screen turned dark. “No calls for reinforcements?”

“None. That Dreg was the reason the signal kept trying to break through. Without manual interference it’s a pretty easy signal to block.”

At that moment the pursuers made their presence known again, their roars of anger significantly closer than before.

Quickly turning around and away from the now turned off comms console, Eidolon considered his options. He’d rather not have a repeat of what happened a minute earlier. There was a degree of skill and instinct there, but it felt mostly like he had gotten lucky.

He could try to throw grenades at the problem until it disappeared, but this time they’d be more ready for it. Explosives were explosives, sure. But being prepared to dodge is the difference between dying and being injured, especially with directed shrapnel-less ones.

Shooting them before they could react would only work for one side of the barrel-tent, leaving him open to potential flankings from the other side. Taking cover behind the tent flaps likely wouldn’t work this time either. The reason they had avoided shooting through the tents previously was probably to avoid hitting potential allies or equipment.

Actually, that brought into question why they hadn’t shot at him through the flaps of the barrel-tent, with there being no one else alive in this side of the camp at the time.

Following this line of thinking like a bloodhound, his gaze snapped to the titular contents of the barrel-tent, examining them closely.

They were all brightly colored, looking more like bundles of gas tanks than barrels on closer inspection, and a large number of them too. One thing they all had in common was a piece of colored print that looked distinctly like warning labels.

“Yo Spook, what’re those barrel-canister things?” he asked, pointing at the aforementioned objects.

She didn’t rematerialise this time, instead taking a moment before answering. “This is actually something we have a database on. They’re fuel cells, usually used to power their ships, but here it seems they're using it to power the plasma drill.” She paused. “Either that drill is really inefficient, or really powerful.”

“Follow up question: how well do they explode?”

Catching on, she answers. “Very. And with that many of them, extremely so. What do you plan to do?”

If Eidolon had had the ability to grin, it would have been positively diabolical. “Wait ‘till they’re all surrounding the tent, then shoot the cells from a distance. They go kaboom, and take out all the baddies at once.” He giggled darkly.

Ignoring her Chosen’s apparent pyromania, she threw in her own two cents into the plan. “Well if that’s the plan, you should probably get a bit farther away from them. You don’t want to get caught in the blast.”

He was about to heed her advice when he had a thought. “Spook, bring out two ‘nades real quick and increase the charge time on them.”

Spook did so with some confusion. “Why?”

Not answering immediately, he peeked out from the tent flap and threw the grenades in two separate directions. One fell on the ground a bit away from the entrance of the fuel cell tent, and the other at the feet of a Vandal with a Wire Rifle, also a bit away from the tent. The Vandal saw the very obvious grenade come towards them, and dodged to the side. Closer to the tent.

This done, he went out behind the comms tent, making sure to keep the fuel cells in sight. “I wanted to dissuade them from going too far away from the explosion, so I planted some obvious ones for them to avoid, bringing them closer to the big one.”, he explained.

Explanation given, he settled down and aimed down the sights of the Wire Rifle, at the most central cell he could find. “Could you keep a lookout? I don’t want to fire too early.” 

She sounded hesitant. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Just scan for them, no need for you to be in the line of fire. Say when they’re close enough”, he soothed. 

Mollified, she did as he asked. 

Sounds of the Eliksni came into focus.

The shouting was getting closer, stomping feet getting louder.

Eidolon sitting still, keeping steady aim.

Getting louder.

Eidolons optics narrowed in concentration.

Louder.

His finger curled around the trigger in preparation.

A hint of movement was perceived at the entrance of the cell tent-

“Now!”

Eidolon squeezed the trigger and fired at the approximate centre of the large stack of fuel cells.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant, everything being flooded with light. Then, came a shockwave of high-pressure air and an earth rattling  _ BOOM _ . 

What followed was a large bright yellow fireball extending outwards, incinerating or badly burning anything it came in contact with. Either way, there was no way of escaping it.

The tent, its contents and everything around it had been blown to bits. The only thing remaining being the red-hot wire that had held up the tent sheet, still stubbornly anchored to the cliff. 

As the flames and smoke faded a bit, he managed to see glimpses of the charred remains of his pursuers. 

Lowering his rifle, feeling immensely satisfied, he stood up. “I think we got them.”

“You think?” Spook deadpans, hovering over his shoulder. Then, she had a thought, and started to panic. “Wait, no, this is bad, very very bad!”

“What is?” He asked sharply.

“Other skiffs could have heard the explosion!” Her shell of pyramids started to spin frantically. “Or maybe even their base! Oh no, I never should have endorsed this, I should’ve…” She started to mutter to herself in hurried whispers.

His mind racing, the experience viewing the worldline of that first Vandal came to mind. One of the many things he had a feel for was a very exact sense of their past location. With this in mind, he sighed and reassured her.

Spook’s lone eye snaps to him. “How do you know for sure?” she demanded. He mimed touching something, standing frozen for extra effect. “Your time viewing?” She asks, confused. “How?”

“One of the many things I get a feel for is an object's past state, and where it had been at any given time. What I’m saying is that their HQ is very far away and that there’s no chance they heard it.”

She stared silently at him for a moment, and then sighs in relief. “Well that’s reassuring.”

Nodding, Eidolon turned his gaze back towards the vault-cave entrance. “Just to be sure, scan for remaining hostiles please.”

She did so, and made a noise of surprise, tilting to the side. “Two of them are still alive.”

“Must have been in the cave when the explosion happened.” He concluded. “C’mon.”

He approached the entrance, Spook dematerialising as he went. He spotted a Dreg holding its head, leaning against the plasma drills generator, likely concussed from being a lot nearer the explosion. 

Without much fanfare, the Dreg got its head shot off from a distance.

There was a large cable coming out of the generator, going into the cave. He inspected it as he approached. It was segmented, like a caterpillar, a steady pulsing of orange light coming through the end connected to the generator going into the cave.

Getting close, near the lip of the cave, he saw one of the coils of the cable poking out. He noticed that it started to shift-

-and that’s all the warning he got as he got ambushed by a huge Vandal, nearly Captain sized, plasma drill held aloft and humming dangerously, a searingly hot white-blue tip heading for his chest.

Reacting quicker than he thought himself able to, he just barely managed to catch it by the sides. This only halted it, but he found himself unable to push it away. The Vandal snarled, not giving away an inch. They stood there, locked into position, each struggling to turn the deadly mining implement against the other.

Of the opinion that the stalemate was getting stale, the Vandal started twisting the drill to the side in an effort to make Eidolon lose his grip. In response he went with the motion, twisting out of the way to avoid the drill tip.

The drill was now closer to the ground, with both the Vandal and Eidolon having an awkward grip on it. Both knowing that if they let go it would lead to their death. 

The Vandal hissed and chittered at him, hatred gleaming in its four glowing blue eyes.

“Y’know an insult is only really effective when the one you’re insulting understands you, right?” He responds, voice strained. The super Vandal just snarled something back.

Another tense stalemate followed, though this one was shorter and broken by Eidolon.

He kneed the side of the drill, burning himself slightly in the process, but doing significantly more damage to the Vandals corresponding leg. The Vandal roared in pain and lost its grip on the drill.

This turned out to be all Eidolon needed, as he quickly adjusted his grip and brought the mining implement to bear on the still stunned Vandal, putting the tip of the drill directly against its chest.

With the exclamation he’d heard before being closest to a roar, this was definitely the first time he'd heard one of them scream. The agonised sound was as intense as it was short, echoing uncomfortably in the cave. The drill had burned through it in moments. Its eyes went dim.

The final Vandal fell, a burnt hole in its chest. 

If he had had lungs, Eidolon was pretty sure he would have been huffing heavily. Seeing as he didn’t, he just stood there, shaking slightly from simulated after-combat stress. After a second or two of doing that, he dropped the now inactive drill, and said more calmly than warranted “Any more surprises?”

Slightly shaken by the amount of brutality on display, Spook materialised and took a scan behind him. “N-no, not as far as I can tell.” After scanning a second time, just to be sure, she turned back to him and hovered over his shoulder. She glanced at the rather foreboding vault door, seeming way bigger than it did from outside the cave passage leading to it. “So, why did we fight our way to this place?”

Nearly imperceptibly, Eidolon untensed, feeling calmer now that he knew he wouldn’t need to fight more hostiles… and that no one was trying to break into the vault. Speaking of which. “No clue. Although I think the answer to that lies on the inside.”

Spook glanced a second time at the door, questioningly. Giving it a scan, and uttering an incredulous “huh” once she was done, she asked. “And how do you propose we get in? This thing is a meter and a half of tungsten-chromium alloy along with an… unknown element, with no visible opening mechanism. It’s no wonder they didn’t manage to get in after drilling away at it for Light knows how long.”

On a closer inspection, the only sign any break-in had even been attempted was the soot from the plasma drill on the paint job. Soot marks around the sides of the circular door indicated additional unsuccessful attempts to get the door open with explosives.

Walking towards the door, the earlier shaking almost completely gone, Eidolon reached out with a hand. “Well I do have a surefire way to figure out how something functions, so let’s do that before drawing any conclusions, yeah?”

If Spook had hands, she would have facepalmed. Right, worldline viewing. That’s gonna take some getting used to… and hopefully, there would be plenty of time for that. As it was, she gave her one eye a slow roll.

He snorted lightly in amusement, touched it and-

__ **_i̴͓͝t̸̙͗_ **

_ unchanged, heat, immovable, _

**_ş̶̨̙̫̺̜̼̊̒̈̏͑ȩ̸͂͂̏͋̓́͝ͅẽ̵̜̼͔̀͝s̸͕̖̗͎̎̆͑̓̕͘͝_ **

_ unmoving, unmoving, unmoving, _

**_Û̵̡̨̙̰͙͇͚̬̣̈́̅̋̿̾̀̇̉̊͑̒̾̌͐̐͜ͅS̴̞̠̪̯̟̰̼̓̃̒̇̉̽̅̋͆̕ͅ_ **

_ grinding material, rolling, unmoving, _

**_W̶̧̛̖̰͓̺̞̦̪͎͍̯̎͆̌̐̐̈́̌͆̃̈͝͠ͅA̵̢̛͚̹̯̹̜̟̤̜͇̳̣̻͂̑͗̈̈̆̏̂̎̽̈̌͌̃͛̾͌̚͘̕L̸̡͍̰̱̪͙͔̞̹̻̺̩̯̗̗͔̟̗̠̼̑͊̋̿͐͆̓̓L̵̦̅̑̿͐̿̈̏͑̑̎͆̿͌͑̉͝_ **

_ unmoving, rolling, grinding material, _

**_O̵̡̨̨̮̙̘̪͖̼͓̥̝̯̹̱͕͓͚̝̱̖̲̘̩̗̰͓̺̱̥̪̟̜̾͊̀̽̾͛͌̆͒̅͐̆͑͂̋͗̕͜͝P̵̨̢̛̞̼̟̝̰͉̹̠̜̘̲̫̮̏̂̈́͒͆̊́̇̏̓́̔͒̀̋̔̍̊̎̉̇̿̆́͜͝Ē̶̺̬͉̳̰͖̳͇͉̖̲̠͉̣͈̝̭͙̺̤̩͉̠̟̭͎̥̟̗̍̔͋̈́͋̔͐͒̑́͒̊̈́̓̔̃̈́͑̓͛̕̚͘͜ͅͅǸ̷̛̞͑̄̅̔͋̋͗̉̈͌̓́̊̏͊̈́̿͝͝͝͝_ **

“-GET BACK!” was the first thing he heard coming back, Spook slamming into his chest with surprising force, knocking him away from the door.

Unlike before, the door and the surrounding rock was covered in a thick layer of frost, with the exception of the area his hand had previously occupied. An unnatural cold was radiating off of it, making the already foreboding slab of metal even moreso.

“The fuck!?” Eidolon shouted in shock, having landed on his ass after being knocked away.

Spook was shivering violently, her singular iris a pinprick. She swooped into Eidolon's chest, looking for safety. Shocked and slightly unsure what to do, he embraced her tiny frame. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong? What’s got you so scared?”

Burying herself further into the damaged coat, still shaking like a leaf in an autumn storm, she haltingly answered. “I-i-i-i-it f-f-feels l-l-like” -a pause with more shudders- “i-i-it f-feels like the day we were born. The day the Light and Darkness fought… The day the Traveller died” her tiny, haunted voice finished, full of pain, loss and, most of all, soul-freezing terror.

Having very little idea of how to respond to that, or what it meant, he resolved to ask later and kept embracing her. They remained like that until Spook had calmed down, several minutes later.

During that time, Eidolon went back to the time-vision of the door. He got the regular worldline of the door, with it being unable to perceive anything beyond its physical state. What was off was the... voices? Voice? that spoke at the same time as he was experiencing it. It had definitely told him something. It did feel a bit iffy trusting anything going by “the Darkness”, but for some reason the thought brought forth a feeling of caution rather than fear as he might have expected.

What  _ did _ it (they? whatever) say then? Something about seeing, and something about a wall… opening? The first bit was probably referring to him viewing the worldline of the door, and subsequently whatever presence the Darkness had in the metal. As for the latter... He stared dully at the door. Since doors tended to open up, it might have been referred to as a wall because of the presence's inability to sense otherwise. 

The frost was fading away, bit by bit, but otherwise it remained the same as before. Couldn’t be referring to the door then. 

Maybe it was referring to the walls themselves? He started looking around at the surrounding walls, inspecting the uneven and sharp rock closely. After a minute or so of close inspection, he noticed one particular outcropping of rock near the ground on the left side. Near the base of it was an incredibly small gap separating it from the rest of the surrounding rock. Tilting his head thoughtfully for a moment, he looked down at the Ghost in his arms. 

“I think I figured out how to open it.” He said carefully, unwilling to provide where the tip had come from.

Still shaking, but significantly less so, Spook looked up at him. “Oh?”

Letting go and allowing her to hover back to his shoulder, Eidolon got to his feet and squatted next to the rock he’d noticed earlier. He briefly explained his observation of the cave walls, while also saying it was because he was trying to find an alternate way to open the door.

“... and then I noticed this piece of the wall looked fishy.” He finished, tapping said piece of wall. It didn’t quite wiggle, but there was a definite, if smal, movement.

They sat in silence for a few seconds. “Well..? Aren’t you going to pull it out?” Spook asked snappily.

Glancing at her, eyeridge raised, he replied. “Heh, how come you’re so snappy? What happened to the calm and collected battle-Spook?”

She huffed, sounding aggravated and tired. “That Spook has had a very long day in addition to an extremely harrowing encounter with the force responsible for the death of my creator. So do excuse me if I’m feeling a bit bad tempered.”

Eidolon hummed. “Fair enough.” He grabbed the rock and started pulling it out. I wasn’t a smooth process by any means, a lot of wiggling was involved, and going by the weight it would take a little while to get it out all the way. “I’m assuming the Collapse you mentioned is connected to that day then?” he asked, wanting to fill the unwanted silence.

“...Yes, the battle between the Traveler and the Darkness happened almost simultaneously with the collapse. The Collapse is what the survivors that hid in the bunkers are calling it.” She continued tiredly. “I can’t really say that I know precisely what happened during it, only what happened in the aftermath when we were born.”

He drew the rather obvious conclusion about what kind of collapse it was when he remembered the ruined buildings he had been resurrected at. A collapse of society and everything that came before it. 

The thought brought him up short. He stopped wiggling the rock out of the wall -about halfway done- to look outside, immediately taking note of the yellowing sky.  _ “Huh, I’ve been alive for a day.” _ Now wasn’t that a weird thought?

Dismissing it, he went back to getting the rock out of the wall. When it was almost out, he could get a better grip on it by grabbing it from the sides. Doing so, he stood up and pulled it the rest of the way out. 

Leaning the irregularly shaped stone pillar against the wall, he took a look inside the dark, and now empty, hole. Wordlessly, Spook floated up over his shoulder and shone a light down the hole -real nifty, that- revealing a grid of tiny black metal bars framed by a steel frame. Eidolon reached into the hole to touch it, noting with mild confusion that the hole fit his hand and arm near perfectly, he made contact-

_ sound of light contact, grinding of stone against stone, _

_ quiet, muffled sounds of combat and screaming, a plasma drill firing away, _

_ objects being placed, a long time of quiet and distant forest noise, _

**_#̷̧̗͎̰̦̬̠̊͊̕@̷͖̮͗͋͒̿̂̎͒͋̕̕͝%̷̢̡̢̤̳̳͑¤̶̥̳͎̃̈͐̈́̑̇̎̚̕ &̸͈̳͍̪̞͔̈̿̆%̷̡̖̮̦̥̙͉̰̤̹͌̏̅¤̵͙͖̼͎͚̩̲̠̦͙̋͗̓͊̎̿͠&̴̡̩͍̟̳̪͈͕͂̃̀́̓̔̚#̵̢͖͈̬̜̥̖̱̘͙̃@̶̤͚͂̈̌͛͂͂̈́%̸̨͎̱̝̳͎̻͋̈́̇¤̶̯̲͉͍̑͋̈̏͝&̶̨͕̗̲̍%̶̹̬̟͈͇̟͂͑̏͗¤̷̬̗͖͖̱̫̹̖̈́͛̎̈́̐͛̽͒_ **

_ quiet, hurried footsteps, grinding of stone against stone _

_ a series of words spoken backwards, a loud noise of something extremely heavy being moved, _

_ more hurried footsteps, fading, silence, _

_ calm footsteps, words spoken, acknowledgement from insi- _

He pulled back, having gotten what he was looking for. That voice… it sounded incredibly familiar, but why? 

Seeing that he had pulled back, Spook spoke up. “What was it?”

“A microphone, with a voice key password.” He said thoughtfully, still contemplating the voices identity.

A groan. “Oh, great, and we can’t get in without the correct voice and password.“ She sounded exasperated and annoyed. “I could try hacking it?” Spook suggested.

Getting the feeling he should be more surprised by her ability to do that, he nodded in assent.

Shining a light down the hole, she started spinning the pieces of her shell back and forth rhythmically. She suddenly flinched back. “Gah! What the hell is up with these firewalls!? It’s like they’re preemptively setting up new defenses to counter whatever code I’m about to use!” She tried a couple of more times, until she finally gave up. Glaring at the hole, she grumbled. “Fine, you win. And now we can’t get in”

A moment later, Eidolon spoke “Yo Spook, could you play back a recording of my voice real quick? I want to test a hypothesis.”

A slow blink. “...Anything in particular?”

“Whatever strikes your fancy.”

A second later, a recording of his own voice sounded out.  _ “I want to test a hypothesis” _

Welp, that confirms it.

“I think it's  _ my _ voice that’s needed.”

“...And how did you come to that conclusion?”

“Well.” He starts. “The first clue I got while I was viewing the mics worldline. Then I heard a voice that sounded hella familiar. Then I realised? Remembered? That your voice sounds different in your head when speaking than what people actually hear. Clue two hinted at it belonging to me, so I asked you to play it back to confirm it. It matched.”

“...Huh.” she said, absorbing the influx of information. “What’s clue two?”

In lieu of answering, he pointed at the big, and in hindsight, rather obvious “E 5” sigil by the top of the door. Spook said as much right afterwards.

“What is the password then?” she asked, feeling a bit drained.

Having first “heard” it backwards, Eidolon had to reverse the order of what was said. After doing so in his head, he snorted and started to laugh, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. He laughed for a solid minute, the stress and tension of the day making whatever the password was a lot funnier than it had any right to be.

Spook looked on in mute horror. “Oh, great, he’s snapped. Wonderful. Fantastic.”

As he finally calmed, he held up a finger in a gesture asking her to hold on for a sec’. He then took some semi-necessary breaths, and spoke clearly into the mic-hole:

“Clovis Bray is a miserable fuckwiener.”

A cool androgynous voice sounded out from the speaker-mic.  _ [Voice print recognised. Welcome back Eido.] _

As it finished speaking, they heard the dull noise of metal slowly grinding against metal echo from the vault door. The noise stopped, and soon afterwards the door itself was pulled backwards, revealing that it was a lot bigger than at first glance. The frame of the door extended a few meters into the ground, and had cog teeth that fit snugly with the circular cog-like door. It was pulled back some more, one and a half meters matching its thickness, before it started rolling to the right with a loud clunking noise for each connecting cog-tooth. 

After the door rolled out of the way, it revealed a corridor entrance. Surrounding it in a circle were a collection of metal bolts of the same material as the door, angled towards where the centre of the door would be when closed. “ _ They must have been the source of that noise when it started opening, caused by their retraction” _ Eidolon mentally realised.

After the door was fully opened, a catwalk soundlessly telescoped over the three meter gap between the rest of it and the cave. A pair of small but robust clamps attached to the sides of the catwalk solidly bit down into the edge of the cave floor, stabilising the newly formed bridge.

They stood in awed silence for a moment before Spook slowly turned towards Eidolon. “... If this is your vault, who the hell were you before I resurrected you?”

He studied the catwalk briefly. “... ‘Guess we’re about to find out.” He said, put the piece of wall back in its slot, and started walking over it, Spook following right behind him.


End file.
